


ototoxic environment

by Anonymous



Category: Vinland Saga (Anime), Vinland Saga (Manga)
Genre: Brother/Brother Incest, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, POV Outsider, Period Typical Attitudes, Sibling Incest, none actually happening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:02:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24429916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Torgrim overdoes it.
Relationships: Torgrim/Atli (Vinland Saga)
Kudos: 3
Collections: Anonymous





	ototoxic environment

**Author's Note:**

> @vincestsaga on twitter for more brocontent👍

There's rarely enough beds after a raid for every man in Askeladd's band to spend the night inside. English villages have a lot of houses, but they're still small, and while families may be able to cram parents and kids into one bed, the mattresses are rarely enough to fit more than two adult men. Warriors on the march tend to get used to sleeping on their own, and it's not every friendship can negotiate staking a claim on the right mattress or pile of hay before it's claimed by someone else. Plenty of men end up on the ground, or in barns, or down on the shore in the same tents they've been dying to leave behind.

Scalli splits his time. If he's in time to grab a bed, then he's in time, and if he isn't, he doesn't bother picking a fight. A lot of the band have been around much longer than he has; no point in making himself unpleasant.

The Ear's the last man he expects to see waiting around in the same spot he's earmarked for surveying the little village. It's in front of a barn, one that offers a good view of the rest of town. It must be decent for hearing the whole place, too, which is why Ear usually wouldn't be here. He just about always prefers the steady sound of the waves to whatever goes on as the rest of the band gets ready for sleep in a new place.

"Nice night?" Scalli ventures. They're not on great terms—at least, he doesn't think they are.

"Fucking awful.”

Well, it's hard to tell with him, anyway. At least his complaint is usually the same. "Too loud?”

"The usual.” Ear gestures at the house right next to them, the one closest to the barn. His body language is the only thing that makes him look or sound more disgusted than usual. "Thought I might get a night on straw for a change. But it's right next door, of course.”

The only sound Scalli's ears can pick up is Torgrim cooing obscenely over someone. None of it clear enough to make out words, but everyone in the band knows his voice. It's true he's not exactly known for being able to keep his mouth shut. Bad luck for the Ear. Torgrim's an old hand from way back, so probably no one took issue with him hauling a woman off for himself. Taking up a whole house too is pushing it, in Scalli's opinion. But his brother's the only one who ever has any success persuading him to share, and Atli's nowhere in sight.

"Sounds like he picked a real special one for tonight.”

The Ear snorts, an especially sour look passing across his odd face for a fraction of a second, but doesn't offer any response. In the silence, all Scalli can hear is Torgrim being a bit fucking embarrassing, to be honest. He must've picked the town whore or something, because Christian women don't have much to offer, typically. Especially for the first rape of many before they're rounded up to be sold off.

"Sounds like a woman going through a basket of kittens, don't he?”

Ear lets out what might be a chuckle, and Scalli goes on, encouraged: "I tell you, I might be losing a bit of respect for him.”

"Don't get me started.”

Scalli's about to ask what that means when Ear presses his hands over his ears and winces in anticipation of the final burst. When it comes Scalli rather wishes he'd done the same, because Torgrim doesn't seem concerned what the neighbors will think, or, really, anyone in town.

He's not exactly known for being shy, either, but he does take his women in private sometimes. Apparently that's not out of modesty.

"Like a man with a new mistress,” Scalli says. "You wouldn't think a—"

"For fuck's sake,” Ear says, and vanishes quite suddenly.

For a little while Scalli is left in front of the barn, staring in bewilderment at the faint darkness that shouldn't be enough to mask a man as well as it does the Ear, who's slipped away into nothing as if he simply blinked out of existence. He never thought himself that bad a conversationalist. Then the door of the house opens and Atli comes out, yawning and stretching his arms. His hair's down around his shoulders and not looking all that neat.

"Oh,” Atli says, when he sees Scalli. "You're not using the barn, are you? I always think even a tent's better than the smell.”

"Just making my mind up,” Scalli says. It's hard not to respond in kind, when a man starts up a conversation as if his brother wasn't having a very enthusiastic sexual experience right behind him about two minutes ago. Scalli clears his throat. "I didn't know you two shared.”

The satisfied smile slips off Atli's face. "Oh, well—" he whips around to look at the house as if just realizing it's the same one his brother's inside— "Well, some... times...” He turns back to Scalli. "You say _sharing_ like we... No, I went first. With the woman.”

"Well, s'not that weird. I reckon we've all seen each other in the act by now.” Scalli takes a sip of the water he wishes were something stronger. "She sounded like the fuck of a lifetime, though.”

"Well, hopefully not.” Atli laughs a little nervously. His mustache is looking a bit askew, Scalli notices. "Always better waiting in the future, right?”

"You don't think I could have a go, do you?” Scalli asks, suddenly hopeful. They must be sharing whatever mattress is inside, so they might be willing to toss the woman out.

"No,” Atli says immediately. "I mean—you know, we've killed her now,” he adds when Scalli throws him a look that says _You're as stingy as your brother_.

"Killed her! That's good money down the drain, that is.”

"Do whatever you please with the next one you catch, then,” Atli snaps.

He is as greedy as Torgrim, Scalli decides. And less honest about it. "Well, tell your brother anyone would think he's the maiden getting deflowered, the way he goes on. Gushing like that over some woman he's planning to kill anyway, like he's going to carry her off and wife her.”

A sound comes out of Atli, halfway between a laugh and a sigh, both of them smothered by a cough. "I-I... I might let him know, thanks.” He looks around for a few seconds, for all the world like he needs something to hold him up.

Brotherhood must be a strange thing. Scalli's only got sisters, and a few nephews. He's always thought insulting a man's brother to be a sure way to get under his skin.

"You won't let him know I said it,” he says, suddenly nervous it might really make its way back to Torgrim. And for all Atli looks like he's trying not to laugh, they team up on just about everything and no one in the band calls it cheating the way they fight.

"No, no,” Atli assures him. "Just some advice from a little bird.”

"It's not what you'd expect from him, is all.” Scalli's eager to make sure Atli understands him fully. "That kind of—lovey-dovey carrying on. Not that I was listening, and I guess you'd know him a bit better, so when I say not what you'd expect—"

"He's like that, yeah.” A grin quirks the corner of Atli's mouth, which he's no longer hiding with his arm.

"He must be thinking about taking a wife, is all I meant. Someday.”

"Notreallylooking,” Atli says, indistinctly, turning his head away for a second. He glances back at Scalli quickly. "You're not out here by yourself, are you?”

"The Ear was here. He cleared out pretty quick, though. I guess he heard you walking in the house.”

"Oh.” Atli's smile drops off his face as quickly as the Ear vanishing in the night. "I thought... thought he was more shoreward tonight.”

"Said he wanted to try straw out. Say, did someone get you in the jaw or something?”

"No,” Atli says distractedly, craning his neck as if the Ear's going to be hiding behind a pile of hay or a plow. "Dinner must've done something to me. How quick would you say he...?”

"It's just you keep—" Scalli moves his jaw around in an exaggerated semicircle. "Stretching it, like. You didn't put your mouth down there, did you?” he demands, struck by a sudden idea. "All these English girls have crabs, you know.”

"Crabs?” Atli shoots him a glare. "There's no crabs on—and I didn't put my mouth anywhere. What would I do that for?”

This brother's clearly not planning on a wife anytime soon, either. "Speaking of the Ear. I think he can even tell, you know, when we're on the edge. Must be rough for him when we're all in tents, eh?”

"Well, but—" Atli rises onto his tiptoes, looking around and rocking up and down on his heels. "Surely he can't pay attention to everything close by. He'd go mad. He's always bitching how he can't make things out when we're breathing near him, he can't really...”

Scalli wonders if there's some bad blood there. Atli's quarrels are usually mended by sundown, and he's never known the Ear to go in for real feuds underneath all the grumbling. Maybe there's money owed.

"Surely he'd say something about it, if he heard anything too personal?” Atli asks him, as if he'd know. Scalli's just about to say, raise your voice a little and ask him yourself, when the door opens behind Atli.

"How much fresh air do you fucking need? There's plenty of water inside if it was really—" 

"Just talking,” Atli says quickly. "I think we'd better get some sleep, we both... had a night. With the woman.”

"Oh, yeah. Her.” Torgrim looks at Scalli with so much distaste that he wonders for a second if Torgrim's hearing is as good as the Ear's. "What're you hanging round for? Waiting your turn?”

"You'll regret it in the morning if you're rude,” Atli half-sings at him, hustling his brother back inside without wishing Scalli so much as a good night. As the door swings shut, his voice turns more businesslike. "Listen, you've—"

With a clunk, conversation becomes inaudible again. Voices are audible past the logs and joinings, but nothing clear enough to listen to. It's probably easy listening at the windows all these English folk like putting in their houses to let in the cold. Scalli's not in the mood for that, though. It doesn't look like anyone's tossing a friend or a woman out of the house they've claimed, but the Ear must have left a space behind in the barn.

The barn's pretty small, but there's another man in there, passed out drunk already. There's no sound in here but his snoring, and as Scalli curls up in relative peace and quiet, compared to nights on the boats or in the tents all gathered close together, he decides he really doesn't envy the Ear one bit. Atli and his brother can do all the talking they want next door, but none of it's going to get in the way of a good night's sleep for him.


End file.
